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AOL sell ICQ to DST (Russia)

dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com

11–20 of 29 posts

Re: AOL sell ICQ to DST (Russia)

#11
post #5

There's a great and unstoppable tendency in Russia to switch to Jabber, so I wonder why would someone want to invest huge pile of money into almost dead service based on a centuary old technology? Either investors are dumb or there's some grassroot movement involved.

I knew ICQ was old, but century old technology? Unless it started out as a telegraph service I think you're confused.

Re: AOL sell ICQ to DST (Russia)

#12
post #8

Still run ICQ+Pidgin+OTR daily. And while I don't have the coveted 6 digit ICQ UIN I got a 7 digit so that makes me old. I wonder if this will increase or decrease the amount of Russian spam I receive through the service. I know some who get bombarded daily.

I still have one but I never actually log in - got the 6 digit even (#924218). I didn't realize it was an active, viable service still. At least at a level of independent value that makes it worth selling off.

I'm #575061. We are the ones in the first million, huh!

It's impressive how quickly a company can lose such an impressive market share.

Re: AOL sell ICQ to DST (Russia)

#13
post #5

There's a great and unstoppable tendency in Russia to switch to Jabber, so I wonder why would someone want to invest huge pile of money into almost dead service based on a centuary old technology? Either investors are dumb or there's some grassroot movement involved.

I'd guess the latter as DST doesn't seem to be dumb. They are heavily invested in Facebook, Zynga, Groupon and others. DST investors include Goldman Sachs and Tencent. They have been doing a lot of deals lately partly because they offer cash and will purchase employee stock. Both are nice when IPOs are so rare.

Re: AOL sell ICQ to DST (Russia)

#14
post #5

There's a great and unstoppable tendency in Russia to switch to Jabber, so I wonder why would someone want to invest huge pile of money into almost dead service based on a centuary old technology? Either investors are dumb or there's some grassroot movement involved.

There's a great and unstoppable tendency in Russia to switch to Jabber

Are you use you're not talking about geeks having an unstoppable tendency in Russia to switch to Jabber? Isn't the second most popular IM Mail.ru Agent, which is also owned by DST?

Re: AOL sell ICQ to DST (Russia)

#15
post #5

There's a great and unstoppable tendency in Russia to switch to Jabber, so I wonder why would someone want to invest huge pile of money into almost dead service based on a centuary old technology? Either investors are dumb or there's some grassroot movement involved.

Everyone I know uses ICQ. (I’m in Germany.) They might also use Skype but that is by no means a given. It’s a truly dreadful situation. I wish it were different but it isn’t.

Re: AOL sell ICQ to DST (Russia)

#17
post #11
post #5

There's a great and unstoppable tendency in Russia to switch to Jabber, so I wonder why would someone want to invest huge pile of money into almost dead service based on a centuary old technology? Either investors are dumb or there's some grassroot movement involved.

I knew ICQ was old, but century old technology? Unless it started out as a telegraph service I think you're confused.

I think he/she was exaggerating.

Re: AOL sell ICQ to DST (Russia)

#18
post #16

Oh, it is a true Russian way of investment - we have money, everything else does not matter. AOL should be very happy (and surprised) to get rid of that old crap.

It's not crap. It's the most popular IM service in Russia and a whole bunch of other countries. I use it daily to talk to friends and business colleagues in Europe, and ICQ is the only service they use (although more technologically-oriented use Skype)

Re: AOL sell ICQ to DST (Russia)

#19
post #5

There's a great and unstoppable tendency in Russia to switch to Jabber, so I wonder why would someone want to invest huge pile of money into almost dead service based on a centuary old technology? Either investors are dumb or there's some grassroot movement involved.

Uh, really? NOBODY I know in Russia/former Soviet Union uses Jabber. Everybody uses ICQ and some use Skype.

Re: AOL sell ICQ to DST (Russia)

#20
post #19
post #5

There's a great and unstoppable tendency in Russia to switch to Jabber, so I wonder why would someone want to invest huge pile of money into almost dead service based on a centuary old technology? Either investors are dumb or there's some grassroot movement involved.

Uh, really? NOBODY I know in Russia/former Soviet Union uses Jabber. Everybody uses ICQ and some use Skype.

Ya, really. I'm in Russia, I'm on jabber since forever, ditched ICQ completely 2 or 3 years ago -- I just don't need it anymore, almost everybody I know is on jabber already.

(admittedly, quitting Skype is noticeably harder).

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